Azamara to Bermuda postscript

Last night I had my Martini. It was a Lychee Martini, sweet, powerful, and although my father would have disowned me for calling it a Martini, I loved it.

I also had, and did not have my Kobe beef. I ordered the Kobe, which had an 8 dollar surcharge over and above the $25 at Prime C”. It arrived, about Â¾ of an inch thick and rare, but not Kobe. Apparently it is from Idaho, where the cattle are raised “Kobe style”, and while they don’t massage the animal like in Kobe, they are really, really nice to them. It was chewy. By the way, the entry floor to Prime C is very slippery. I am not exaggerating; it is like walking on ice. I literally slid my shoes and skated to the table.

Now for the big thing. If you are going to go on Journey in the near future, there is a work in progress that can trip you up. I bought an Internet package for $100, which reduced the rate per minute from 65 cents to 38 cents. Each time I logged in, the home page told me how much time in dollars I had left. On Thursday it said I had over $50 left. That same day a pre bill arrived, and I was being charged a couple of hundred dollars for the Internet. I went to the desk and they told me that they would check with the “Internet lady” and not to worry.

I worried, so later in the afternoon, I went to the Computer room, met Isabel from Manila, and showed her my problem. Apparently, the internet software sometimes recognized my lower rate package and sometimes it did not. But, that was all behind the scenes, I kept seeing all this time left. She said not to worry, but to see her Friday night and she’d take care of it.

Last night at 6, I met with Isabel and we went over, and over, and over the problem. She admitted that the Internet program had a “glitch”, but was not that quick to agree that I should not pay for the glitch. At 6:30 she said she would remove the hidden charges, even though she might get into trouble, and she hugged me. She is quite attractive, so I went off to my Lychee Martini feeling pretty good about life.

This morning the final bill came. No change, charges were still there. I went to the front desk, Matt called her on her pager, and she said she had to check her records. I headed to the computer room. Oh yesâ€¦.she remembered meâ€¦hugâ€¦.and would take care of itâ€¦hug, and was sorryâ€¦..sad faceâ€¦no hug.

Back to Matt, a lot of the charges were removed, but a few big ones from yesterday were still there. Let me say that the Internet was very slow, and I had been on for an hour doing about 15 minutes of work, BUT my home page still showed I had 20 some dollars left.

Isabel came down, and said she couldn’t take those charges off. I said, but you are charging me the full rate. She said because your package has run out. I said not according to the home page. She said there’s a glitch in the system.

There is no way to shorten this story, but condense it I shall. After 45 minutes of haggling, threatening, pulling the journalist card, I got the charges taken off.

“I am so sorry for all of this.” Isabel said, actual tears were forming in those now really liquid brown eyes, and then a monster hug.

All problems gone, except of course, how to keep Michael from reading this.

This is being written in the Admiral’s Club at Newark Airport. We’ve been here 4 hours and only two to go until our nonstop to LA.

Debarkation was smooth at nine AM. A shuttle bus took us to EWR and we rolled our three big bags to the AA counter. Usually I use curbside check in, but I wanted to get an earlier flight. That, apparently was impossible, as a Chicago flight had been canceled and all seats were full going out of Newark. Disappointing, but the next news was bad. The baggage belt was having problems (a new system) and four hours before our flight was as soon as we could check in. We rolled our luggage, the three big bags, and now a more noticeable carry on bag, and Michael’s purse, and a beach bag with “stuff” in it, away from the counter.

Then it hit me, the curbside guy! Back out, wheels groaning, we parked in front of the podium. “Where are you going?” asked the handler.

“LA.” said the gypsies.

“There’s a four hour windowâ€¦.the baggage beltâ€¦yada, yada.”

“Would 20 dollars help?” smiled the gypsy leader.

Handler frowned, then smiled and the process began. I won’t put you through the rest, but when he tried to check us in, he discovered the “system” had dropped us from, well, the system. Had we not been early, I’d be writing this tomorrow, from Newark. A glitch?

We got our boarding passes, luggage was tagged, and I gave him the $20.

“Oh,” he said, “there’s a $2 American Airlines charge per bag.” Another six dollars; it was worth it!

Newark not withstanding, we will go back to journey with Azamara to view the finished product, men at work signs taken down, at the end of October. The trip will be 14 days from the Bayonne terminal with a stop in Bermuda, on to South America, ending in Miami.

Michael and I are looking forward to this coming trip. Journey’s going to be awesome

One Response to “Azamara to Bermuda postscript”

Hi, Geoff,
This is funny stuff! I’m so glad you went ahead and asked for a “real” cruise on the ship. It’s fair to them and to you.

It was great meeting you–you’re as funny and unaffected as I imagined, and Michael is adorable.

I’ll bet we encounter each other again in future! (Hey, if you ever need a substitute or fill-in while you’re away or whatever, don’t be afraid to call! As I mentioned, I’ve been on 96 cruises and visited more than 100 countries and all 7 continents. (Yada yada, I know..)